‘The Master & Margarita’ adapted for film
‘The Master & Margarita’ by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov started writing The Master and Margarita in 1929 and continued to rewrite it for many years. At one point he even burned the manuscript but resurrected it again. He was still working on it up until a few weeks before his death in 1940. A censored version was published in Russia in 1967 and a slightly fuller translation, based on a samizdat edition, was published in the west in 1968.
It achieved cult status quickly and still retains it today (it allegedly inspired the lyrics of Sympathy For The Devil when Marianne Faithful gave it to Mick Jagger to read). It is a novel that can be read and enjoyed on many levels: as a piece of fantasy, as a love story, as a political satire. Written during the Stalinist era, one of Russia’s most brutally repressive periods, it is a strangely rebellious book with a life-affirming and anarchistic spirit that readers still respond to.
The book is set in Moscow in the 1930s and has three main storylines, two of which are interwoven. The central story is about an unnamed writer called “The Master” whose work has been censored and suppressed by various bureaucrats to the point where he becomes deeply depressed and is committed to a lunatic asylum. (This story has the strongest element of autobiography – at one point, the Master even burns the manuscript of a book he has written, although it is restored to him later).
The Master is in love with an unhappily married woman called Margarita who determines to rescue him. To do this, she enlists the help of a foreign gentleman visiting Moscow called Professor Woland, who is none other than Satan in disguise. In the second story-line: Woland and his retinue, including a large black cat, amuse themselves by playing tricks on petty communist officials and on ordinary Muscovites, who are far from immune to the temptations of free money and designer clothes.
The third story concerns the contents of the burned book iself: a fictional account of the meeting between Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate. Here Bulgakov takes the opportunity for some philosophical debate, but in the very gentlest way, and with characters who are portrayed as essentially flawed and human. This is typical of a book that is deceptively simple and light in its tone but, at the same time, multilayered, thought provoking and affecting.
The book has been adapted many times: for the stage, film, television and even as a graphic novel. Here are three contrasting adaptations that feature one of the episodes in the book, Professor Woland’s public performance in Moscow.
Click the expand icon (bottom right) to view clips at full screen
The Master & Margarita 1972
Directed by Aleksandar Petrovic with various writers credited for the script, this joint Italian-Yugoslavian production tries to squeeze the book into a feature-length format by jettisoning many of its subtleties in favour of a simple love story with a supernatural element.
The Master (he is actually given a name in this version, contrary to Bulgakov’s express intentions) is a successful writer who has written a controversial play about Pontius Pilate and is locked up in a mental asylum. Margarita, portrayed here by Mimsy Farmer as an acquiescent blonde, colludes with Woland to help him. The play is performed with Woland’s magic show (shown here) as a curtain raiser.
The Adaptation
This is a fairly loose adaptation but not lacking in vitality or style. Italian taste dominates both in the music and cinematography. One original touch is not to show Behemoth, the black cat, as an actor in a suit (always a little clumsy) but as a cinematic on-screen flash of snarling teeth.
Ultimately though the supernatural side of the story mixes uneasily with the more conventional elements as though the adapters couldn’t quite make up their minds what genre the film belongs to.
The Master & Margarita 1988
Directed and adapted by Maciej Wojtyszko, this four-part television adaptation was produced in Poland on a fairly modest budget which shows in some of the more spectacular scenes.
The Adaptation
Despite this, it remained fairly faithful to the book and was performed with theatrical vigour by an experienced cast of seasoned Polish actors. Poland has a strong heritage of surrealistic fantasy, often with a political subtext, on stage, as well as on film; understandably the material takes on some of this flavour in its execution. This interpretation definitely benefits from an East European sensibility though, something the Italian version lacked.
This extract shows an earlier part of the scene where women in the audience are given fashionable Parisian clothes to wear; clothes that will vanish later leaving them in their underwear. The atmosphere and music are more cabaret in style and the venue is smaller. The character of Faggot, Woland’s demonic assistant, is also played in a more voluble and aggressive manner.
Only available in a slightly murky VHS version, it’s perhaps unfair to compare it on a quality basis but it lacks the polish and flair of the Russian version.
The Master & Margarita 2005
Directed (and presumably adapted) by Vladimir Bortko, who had previously adapted another Bulgakov work “Heart of A Dog”, this eight hour, ten-part miniseries was first shown on Russian television in 2005. Despite some critical hostility from acolytes of the author, it was generally well received by the public and achieved record viewing figures.
With a much larger budget than its Polish counterpart, more time to explore the story, plus the advantage of filming in Russia, it would have been hard to fail but Bortko’s greatest achievement is that he approaches the book with exactly the right blend of seriousness and whimsy. He accepts it on its own terms, as a kind of sophisticated fairy tale, part historical drama and part allegory. For all these reasons, this comes closest to a definitive version.
The Adaptation
By thoroughly grounding the story in an accurate portrayal of the period (each episode is prefaced by real footage from the thirties), the fantastic elements are given more power. Even the cinematography, which often uses faded and sepia tones, adds to the effect of looking through a long lens at some magical picture box from the past.
Added to all of this, there is a uniquely Russian romantic spirit that pervades the whole production that would be difficult for anyone else to imitate successfully.
Woland, played here by Oleg Basilashvili, is the central figure in this version: inscrutable and weary, a Satan who does get our sympathy. In the opening moments of the scene, as he studies the audience, a sense of his immense age and power comes across. The scene itself is played with almost complete fidelity, down to the details of costume, but that is less important than its adherence to the inner truth of the story: that freedom is a mysterious and dangerous commodity, something that only the Devil can dispense.
David Clough ©2011
Reading your description of the three different versions of Master and Margarita made my viewing of the films so much more rewarding!
Because the intrinsic material is so good there is something to be derived from all three versions but your understanding of the various cultural differences of the countries in which the films were created enhance one’s knowledge and understanding and deepens the awareness of this incredible masterpiece!
Many thanks
Ruth